Monthly Archives: May 2015

Just some of the books arrived this week ready for review. Some outstanding titles and looking forward to working through each one.

Then again there are a number of titles on my Kindle to be reviewed. So lots of tea/coffee and I will be book review heaven. Oh would be nice if early Summer would finally arrive so I could enjoy reading in the garden.

When I read ‘The Girl Who Fell From The Sky’ I wanted the story to continue and ‘Tightrope’ is that sequel. It had me gripped with every page turned just like the first book.

We now catch up with Marian Sutro at the Wars end, she has survived in more ways than any of us could imagine. Marian survived being captured by the Germans while on operations in France, survived the interrogation by the Gestapo at their infamous Paris HQ and survived living in a concentration camp.

Marion now home in England is struggling to cope in a post war life, she is decorated for her work a heroine. But Marion is not coping with life. What next for her. The last days of WWII see the Atomic bombs in Japan, a Cold War starting with Russia. Marion actually played a part in the development of the bomb. How does she feel now when the news of the first atomic blast in Japan.

I adore the way in which Mawer tells his story, he carries the reader along with the lead character in a tender but gripping way that made each turn of the page more exhilarating.

This story is so believable it could almost be true, imagine if you will a trainee spy taught how to shoot and to kill and then go into the field and do all those things and the unspeakable horror of being tortured and then life and all the hell she witnessed in the concentration camp. Marion Sutro survived. Returned to her family broken.

‘Tightrope is a book that I hoped for from Simon Mawer and I applaud his skill and bringing Marion Sutro to life, with immense skill but with tenderness. At times this was a painful read as you are there with Marion. But I absolutely loved this book. This would make a gripping TV drama and I hope one day it achieves this. It deserves to be seen.

If I had to recommend one book to read, then put this on your to read list. Then go and get a copy of ‘The Girl Who Fell From The Sky’

HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED

Meet the Author:

Simon Mawer

Simon Mawer was born in 1948 in England, and spent his childhood there, in Cyprus and in Malta. Educated at Millfield School in Somerset and at Brasenose College, Oxford, he took a degree in biology and worked as a biology teacher for many years. His first novel, Chimera, was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1989, winning the McKitterick Prize for first novels. Mendel’s Dwarf (1997), his first book to be publish in the US, reached the last ten of the Booker Prize and was a New York Time “Book to Remember” for 1998. The Gospel of Judas, The Fall (winner of the 2003 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature) and Swimming to Ithaca followed. In 2009 The Glass Room, his tenth book and eighth novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Since then he has published Trapeze (The Girl Who Fell From The Sky in Britain) Tightrope is the sequel.
Simon Mawer is married and has two children. He has lived in Italy for the past thirty years.

‘Gripping and tense. Be prepared to be held captive to the last page and cancel all other engagements’

Firstly a big thank you to Alison Barrow for providing a review copy of ‘Disclaimer’ by Renee Knight.

This is an exceptional debut novel. I was held captive from the opening page to the last and has plenty of twist that will keep you from putting this book down.

Imagine moving house and coming across a novel then you pick it up and realise the book is all about you. What would you think, how would you feel? Here is that rollercoaster thriller that more than packs a psychological punch. Catherine has just moved house with Robert her husband and does find that very book. Now the story unfolds and now try and put the book down. The book is called ‘Perfect Stranger’ a book along these lines needs a disclaimer, you know the one ‘any resemblance to any person living or dead’ etc. It is there bold as brass except it has a neat red line through it. Don’t know about you but that would worry me. My heart was racing from here as I knew I was reading something so unique and so very special.

The premise of this story is that Catherine has a secret she has kept locked inside for the last 20 years, so she thought. Renee Knight has written a book that will set you thinking and will play with you. There is more to ‘Disclaimer’ than the reader first realises and as you read on you become hooked. The book moves from Catherine’s narrative to an old man recounting his life with his dead wife Nancy. The one thing about ‘Disclaimer’ is that there are not too many characters so you become intertwined with their lives and with the plot. Clever, brilliant in fact.

The one thing about secrets is that you work so hard and worry about keeping the secret safe that in itself is harder than think and someone somewhere knows.

If you are planning to read Disclaimer and I urge you to go out and buy a copy, be prepared and cancel all other engagements as you will not put Disclaimer down until you have finished reading it. ‘Disclaimer’ really is that good. One of my books of 2015 without a doubt.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Meet the Author:

Renee Knight

Renée Knight worked for the BBC directing arts documentaries before turning to writing. She has had TV and film scripts commissioned by the BBC, Channel Four and Capital Films. Her first screenplay, ‘Mother’s Day’, made it onto the Brit List of best unproduced scripts of that year. In April 2013 she graduated from the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

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